Neil Hernandez's Blog

Live Blue Crab

There is a new grocery that opened up about 30 minutes from my house. I went there on a Thursday morning to buy some head-on shrimp. This grocery store had the largest fresh seafood options I have ever seen. Fresh Barracuda, shark, head-on shrimp, whole grouper, live Blue Crab...it was remarkable. There are only a few places I think of in the entire Chicagoland that offers live Blue Crab and I've never seen Barracuda sold anywhere around here.  The store was packed. On a Thursday morning! By contrast the bigger , more established grovery store Dominicks has a small selection of boring (and questionable if it's fresh) seafood section. The usual farm raised salmon, farm raised tilapia, and frozen shrimp. Dominicks has become boring - and the result is that no one goes there any more. Over the years, Dominicks developed the policies and procedures to create less downside (Unions, regular boring products). Upstarts spend their time making products that have an upsside.

A good pruduct is an infection

"Art is an infection" said Leo Tolstoy. What did he mean by that? Tolstoy meant that in order for something to be considered art, it must affect you and have an impact on you. In other words it must infect you. Furthermore, the infection must be immediate.

Likewise, a product in order for it to be good, must be an infection. If you see the product, be it a website, a movie, a book, a person, or whatever and it takes time for you to decide it it is good, then it is not a good product. If you have to say, let me think about it, let me read it, let me absorb it, let me sit on it, let me test it for a while before you finally say I like this, then it is not a good product. For you at least. It might affect someone else, and thus be good for them, but for you it is not a good product.

So the key then, is if you are making a product is to design the product for only those who see it and get affected by it. Then cater and build to those who are infected. Your job is not to try to convert those who are uninfected. But to infect as many people as you can. Then create a tribe from those infected. Create personal, relavant, and carefully crafted anticipated messages and other products to those infected.

Share to Gain

Mitch Joel brings up a good point when he says: "There is a simpler way to not only make your mark using social media, but to get ever-more comfortable with new media: You can simply start sharing content."

In other words, you do not have to create new content all the time in order to be successful in social media. So your blog, your twitter updates, your Facebook posts, do not necessarily have ot have new original material up there.

I know a guy who has thousands of Twitter followers just by tweeting a quote on love and motivation every day. It is not his quotes or his content, he just delivers it and builds a tribe of fans looking for a message from him every day that is relavant, personal, and anticipated.

Craft an image and stick with it.

Hugh Hefner

Bill Gates

Ever notice that every picture of Hugh Hefner always includes him with beautiful women. Or that almost every picture of Bill Gates shows him speaking in a conference or otherwise looking intelligent like. See, it is all about image. Every image of yourself - whether you like it or not - portrays an impression in people's minds about you. Your FaceBook photo albums, your LinkedIn Profile photo, how you dress everyday at work, every image. Make sure you craft it the way you want it.  I'm not saying to be like Hugh or Bill, but to craft an image and stick with it.

Interruption Marketing is Out!

Old school interruption marketing is out. What I mean by interruption marketing is any type of marketing message that you did not ask for. This includes television ads, newspaper ads, radio ads, telemarketing, spam, cold calls, emails from your contacts that you did not specifically ask for, Facebook posts on your wall that you were not looking out for or anticipating, bill boards, and any other type of marketing which is not personal, relevant, or anticipated.

Personal, relevant, and anticipated marketing messages is what marketing guru Seth Godin calls Permission Marketing.

"Just because you somehow get my email address does not mean you have permission."

See every time you send something to a customer that is not anticipated or relevant, you decrease his desire to want to listen to you. What you want to do instead is to create a tribe. What is a tribe?

Here is a link to a great article on how to create a Tribe:

http://www.tribebuilding.com/2009/04/10-steps-to-marketing-in-a-tribe.html

GUOYA

Years ago I attended a sales training from a very prominent sales trainer. The speaker said the key to sales success was G-U-O-Y-A. "Get Up off Your A**". He has seem many of sales people and businesses his entire let themselves die. He's seen someone spend tens of thousands of dollars spend money to open up a business, have the grand opening, and then just sit there and complain for months as no one walks in the business. Only to see the business slowly die - and all of their investment - without once talking to their neighbors. If I were him, I would have introduced myself to every business within a mile, find out their needs  and hand out grand opening specials.

Marketing guru, Dan Kennedy tells us a story of a Chiropractor who opened up a new business in an area flooded already with similar businesses. So, a month prior to the opening of the store he went door to door to everyone around his business introduced himself, found out about their health needs, and marketed himself. When he opened his doors, he always had an ample amount of business and soon exceeding his competitors around him. His secret? GUOYA!

Image in Marketing Message

Dan Kennedy, the marketing guru talks about how he was helping a chiropractor in his business. He was very good at setting up new appointments with clients, but the problem was that his no show rate was incredulous. He would book appointments, but too many people no-showed. Kennedy found out that this chiropractor had his business located in a relatively new but his business was located in a far out of the way wing and thus rarely had much cars in the parking lot. Plus, he would get his staff to park in the back of the business. What was wrong? You see, people like the impression that you are successful and busy, whether it is conscious or not. When they approached his business and saw a carless lot, they simply drove away. To remedy this situation, Kennedy simply recommended that he moved his car and his staffs car in front of the lot and then rented a Cadillac to sit in the front. His no-show rate declined dramatically.

Likewise, we can all show the appearance of success in your business. Things like cleanliness, orderliness, consistency, and changing simple things can all have a dramatic impact in your business. How consistent and presented is your website? How about the appearance and attitude of your frontline staff? Can you make the small changes and increase you appearance of success?

It's time to connect to superstars

Check out an excerpt of Seth Godin's Blog post:

Connect job hunters with jobs.
My friend Tara has made hundreds of thousands of dollars (in good years) working as an executive recruiter. But what did she actually do all day? She stayed connected with a cadre of people. She kept track of the all stars. She connected with the right people, invested time in them that her clients never thought  was worth it. So, when it was time to hire, it was easier for them to call Tara than it was for them to start from scratch. The best time to start a gig like this is right now, when no one in particular wants to connect with and help out the superstars. Later, when the economy bounces back, your position is extremely valuable. (Note! This only works if you have insane focus and the people you interact with are the true superstars, not just numbers).


This may be a bit of a down time for the average search agency - but not for mine. Like the post mentioned above, the executive recruiter stayed connected with a cadre of people..."so, when it was time to hire, it was easier for them to call Tara than it was to start from scratch."

So that is what the good agency's need to do. Stay connected. Build the relationship; let them think about you. Now may not be the time, but when the time comes you want those superstars to think about you first.

Signature Line

Every interaction you have with a customer is a marketing piece. This includes the signature line of every email you send. So make sure it is complete and make sure it is good. Be sure to include your full name, job title, company name, company website, company tag line, your full contact information including phone numbers, email, as well as any other information they may need.

Creating a good signature line takes a small amount of effort. But it is doing little things like this well that over the long term makes a big difference.

My tooth hurts

Set Godin mentions that the only time people really goto a dentist is when they have a toothache. When a person does not have a toothache, people don't even think about a dentist. Likewise, a company does not even think about a recruiting agency unless they have a glaring need. So the best agencies, do a soft sell approach when marketing and selling their services. They need to be the first person someone thinks about when that glaring need arises. No matter how hard you try before the company has a need, you won't even be considered.